Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao in Cairo Friday put forward four principles for developing a new-type partnership between China and the Arab countries.  

The four principles are: to promote political relations on the basis of mutual respect, to forge closer trade and economic links so as to achieve common development, to expand cultural exchanges through drawing upon each other's experience, and to strengthen cooperation in international affairs with the aim of safeguarding world peace and promoting common development.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, who is accompanying President Hu on a state visit to Egypt, told reporters on Friday morning that Hu had just held a meeting with Secretary-General of the League of Arab States (LAS) Amr Mahmoud Moussa and Arab representatives at the LAS headquarters.

At the meeting, they had an in-depth exchange of views on ways to consolidate and expand relations between China and Arab countries under new circumstances, the Chinese foreign minister said.

At a joint press conference, Li and Moussa announced the establishment of a China-Arab states cooperation forum and issued a declaration on the forum.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2004)